.Dome  (LoKcgc 


-  - Si. r  teen. 

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MISS   CARRIE   R.   DENNEN. 


NEW  YORK: 
P  ITTLLIPR     &     II  r  N  T. 

CINCINNATI: 

C  1!  .1  N S  T 0  X    &     S  TO  W E. 

1884. 


^ap^fjj^g;-d  ^i*'*»;-^wf;^^^  <«•-•  * 


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THE  "  HOME  COLLEGE  SERIES  "  will  contain  one  hundred  short  papers  on 
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And  what  a  young  man  may  do  in  this  respect,  a  young  woman,  and  both 

aid  men  and  old  women,  may  do. 

J.  H.  VINCENT. 
NEW  YORK,  Jan.,  1883. 


Copyright,  1863,  by  PiHi.ur-8  &  HUNT,  New  York. 


UCSB  LIBRARY 


i)on«  ColUgt 


THE  RAIN. 

NATURAL  HISTORY. 

THE  natural  history  of  rain  is  this  :  Vapor  is  formed  by 
heat  from  all  bodies  of  water  great  and  small,  and  from  the 
moisture  of  the  earth.  This  vapor  ascends  until  it  meets 
the  cooler  currents  of  air,  where  it  is  cooled,  forming  mist 
and  clouds,  and  when  sufficiently  condensed,  it  falls  in  re- 
freshing showers  or  storms.  Each  drop  is  formed  according 
to  a  mathematical  law,  its  size  depending  on  the  density  or 
rarity  of  the  atmosphere.  These  little  drops  are  eased 
down  to  the  earth  on  a  cushion  of  air,  as  a  wee  babe  on  a 
pillow.  Were  it  not  for  this  air  cushion  they  would  come  like 
so  many  bullets,  cutting  vegetation  into  shreds,  pelting  the 
cattle  and  wounding  every  unfortunate  person  caught  out  in 
a  shower  or  storm.  We  should  need  umbrellas  of  sheet- 
iron,  and  clothes  like  the  steel  armor  of  the  old  warriors. 

AMOUNT  OF  RAIN. 

Three  fourths  of  the  earth's  surface  is  a  waste  of  water. 
The  great  ocean-basin  in  many  places  is  miles  in  depth.  The 
rain  is  born  in  the  ocean  and  cradled  in  the  clouds.  The 
veins  and  arteries  of  mother  earth  are  all  full  of  this  crystal 
elastic  fluid.  It  circulates  through  all  soils,  and  filters 
through  the  rocks  even,  vast  rivers,  like  that  in  Mammoth 
Cave,  creep  along  under  ground,  while  sparkling  springs 
leap  and  gush  from  the  earth's  bosom.  Build  your  house 
anywhere,  the  ground  beneath  you  contains  the  precious 
boon  of  water. 

This  is  not  all.  From  thirty-five  to  forty-five  miles  above 
us  the  air  is  all  saturated  with  moisture.  All  the  water  of 
the  earth  was  once  in  the  clouds.  Our  usual  annual  rain-fall 
covers  the  whole  globe  to  the  depth  of  five  feet.  The  earth, 


THE  RAIN. 


then,  all  saturated  with  water,  rolls  along  its  orbit,  wrapped 
in  a  wet  blanket  forty-five  miles  in  thickness.  Its  surface  is 
the  bottom  of  another  sea.  We  build  cities  and  towns  and 
railroads ;  we  plant  trees  and  fields  ;  we  think  and  specu- 
late, plot  and  fight,  laugh  and  weep,  live  and  wed  and  die, 
on  the  floor  of  an  ocean,  compared  with  whose  extent  the 
Atlantic  and  Pacific  are  but  drops. 

More  than  this,  even.  Water  fills  every  pore  of  our  skins, 
the  tiny  cells  of  every  leaf  and  plant  and  spire  of  grass. 
Our  bodies  are  four  fifths  water.  That  liquid,  then,  which 
seems  so  utterly  lifeless,  walks  in  man  ;  roams  in  the  beasts 
of  the  field  and  forest ;  crawls  in  the  serpent  ;  soars  in  the 
eagle  ;  swims  in  the  fish  ;  buds  and  blossoms  in  the  rose ; 
waves  in  great  harvest  fields,  and  shines  in  all  the  trees  that 
fling  their  emerald  banner  to  the  skies.  The  vast  abundance 
of  water  carries  our  thoughts  up  to  the  Creator,  who  alone 
is  so  liberal  in  all  his  ways. 

THE  DISTRIBUTION  or  RAIN. 

On  large  tracts  of  the  earth's  surface,  owing  to  atmos- 
pheric currents  and  high  ranges  of  mountains,  it  never  rains, 
and  we  have  great  deserts,  as  Sahara  and  the  Berean  des- 
erts. In  other  regions  rains  are  periodical.  It  falls  almost 
continuously  for  some  months.  Then  it  ceases  for  the  re- 
mainder of  the  year.  There  are  two  seasons,  a  rainy  season, 
followed  by  a  dry  season.  In  other  regions  it  rains  at  short 
intervals  during  the  entire  year.  Where  the  heat  is  greatest, 
as  in  the  tropics,  the  rain-fall,  though  lasting  for  only  a  few 
months,  is  most  abundant.  It  falls  in  torrents,  often  accom- 
panied with  terrific  thunder  and  lightning.  In  the  cooler 
zones  the  fall  of  rain  is  least,  gradually  decreasing  the  further 
north  one  goes. 

Different  years  differ  somewhat  in  the  amount  of  the 
rain-fall.  During  some  seasons  the  earth  is  parched  with 
drought,  while  at  other  times  it  is  flooded  with  water. 


THE  RAIN.  3 

Very  much  of  the  wealth  and  prosperity  of  a  land  depends 
upon  the  distribution  of  the  rain-fall.  Summer  drought 
starves  a  people,  while  winter  floods  sweep  away  millions  of 
property.  This  unequal  distribution  is  due  to  a  great  variety 
of  causes,  some  known  and  more  unknown. 

USES  OF  THE  RAIN. 

The  uses  of  the  rain  are  many,  curious,  and  instructive. 
As  an  agent  in  locomotion  it  serves  a  variety  of  ends. 
When  seated  in  a  finely  upholstered  car  you  are  whisked 
across  the  continent ;  the  rain  supplies  the  power  of  loco- 
motion. When  the  great  steamship,  with  her  thousands  of 
tons  of  freight  and  hundreds  of  passengers,  marches  over 
the  waves,  tramping  them  under  her  keel,  the  rain  bows  its 
Titan  shoulders  and  pushes  at  the  pistons.  In  the  form  of 
water  or  steam,  it  moves  the  machinery  of  the  world.  The 
rain  drops  grind  the  food,  weave  the  garments,  forge  the 
iron  of  the  nations.  The  tramp  of  the  machinery  they 
drive  shakes  the  solid  earth.  They  toil  in  the  mine  and 
sweat  at  the  forge,  and  belt  the  world  with  commerce. 
Were  the  rain-fall  to  cease  all  our  industries  would  fail,  and 
civilization  and  all  progress  come  to  a  stand-still.  The  very 
sinews  of  our  wealth  and  power  are  in  the  rain  drops. 

The  rain  moreover  is  the  source  of  life.  It  is  God's  sus- 
tentaiion  fund.  Without  rain  life  would  become  extinct. 
From  the  great  oak  to  the  lichen  on  its  trunk  ;  from  the 
herds  of  elephants  that  roam  the  African  forests,  to  the  in- 
fusoria that  dash  about  in  a  dew-drop  by  the  millions  ;  from 
the  monsters  of  the  deep  to  the  animalculse  that  crowd  its 
water  and  flash  in  phosphorescent  gleams  on  its  crested  sur- 
face, all  draw  their  sustenance  from  the  breast  of  the  clouds. 
All  races  of  men  and  species  of  animals  and  plants — the 
flowers  and  the  grass,  the  fruit  and  vegetables,  wheat  and 
corn — live  and  breathe,  get  their  fragrance,  and  beauty,  their 
taste  and  nutritive  qualities,  from  the  rain.  We  sow  and 


THE  RAIN. 


reap  the  rain.  We  eat  and  drink  and  wear  the  rain.  We 
fill  our  barns  and  larders  with  the  treasures  of  the  clouds. 

The  rain  not  only  supports  life,  but  is  a  curative  agent. 
It  is  one  of  nature's  principal  healing  remedies.  In  ancient 
times  springs  and  mineral  waters  were  held  in  superstitious 
reverence  and  clothed  with  miraculous  power.  The  old  leg- 
endary writings  are  full  of  wonderful  stories.  According 
to  one  ancient  author  there  was  a  spring  that  turned  the 
animals  white  who  drank  of  it;  while  another  describes  two 
springs,  one  of  which  strengthened  memory,  while  the  other 
destroyed  it,  visited  by  people  who  either  wished  to  drown 
their  sorrows  or  brighten  up  their  memories.  There  were 
also  supposed  to  be  a  great  number  of  springs  that  furnished 
intoxicating  waters,  one  of  which,  sacred  to  Bacchus,  flowed 
at  certain  seasons  of  the  year  with  wine.  I  am  sorry  to  add 
that  the  number  of  intoxicating  springs  has  not  diminished 
in  modern  times,  and,  what  is  worse,  they  flow  all  the  year 
round  instead  of  pei-iodically. 

Even  now  the  ignorant  peasants  of  many  countries  tell 
strange  stories  concerning  the  marvelous  properties  of  cer- 
tain water  which  they  believe  in  and  almost  reverence.  We 
laugh  at  their  superstition,  but,  nevertheless,  consider  many 
of  these  springs  as  wonderful  as  did  the  ancients,  only  in 
another  way,  and  no  one  doubts  their  curative  properties  for 
a  large  class  of  diseases.  According  to  a  definition  given  by 
a  celebrated  physician,  "  a  mineral  water  is  a  special  bev- 
erage which  has  its  own  peculiar  elements  and  special  fla- 
vor, which,  nature  has  mixed  by  a  certain  kind  of  subtile 
chemistry."  The  temperature  of  the  earth  rises  one  degree 
with  every  one  hundred  feet  below  the  surface.  While 
many  of  these  springs  start  out  on  mountain  slopes  and  in 
valleys  near  the  surface,  there  are  those  that  sink  deep  into 
the  earth's  crust,  where  they  are  heated  by  the  central  fires 
of  the  globe.  When  they  come  to  the  surface  they  are  so 
hot  as  to  require  hours  of  cooling  before  they  can  be  used. 


THE  BAIN. 


f  he  hotter  the  spring  the  greater  the  depth  from  whence  it 
comes.  Hot  springs  usually  hold  in  solution  the  greatest 
amount  of  mineral  substances,  and  are  most  highly  esteemed 
for  medicinal  purposes. 

Among  the  most  celebrated  springs  are  those  at  Baden- 
Baden  and  Fredricksthal,  in  Germany;  at  Ragatz,  in  Swit- 
zerland ;  at  Saratoga,  and  in  the  valley  of  the  Genesee 
River,  the  White  Sulphur  Springs  in  Virginia,  the  sulphur 
springs  of  Arkansas,  and  in  many  other  places  in  our  own 
country.  Their  waters  are  taken  both  internally  and  are 
used  for  bathing,  and  are  a  specific  for  a  large  class  of  dis- 
eases— rheumatism,  gout,  heart  disease,  dyspepsia,  diseases  of 
the  skin  and  the  kidneys  and  other  organs,  and  are  a  remedy 
for  nearly  every  ill  flesh  is  heir  to.  Nature  has  stored  away 
somewhere  in  her  myriad  closets  a  mixture,  of  which  water  is 
the  solvent,  that  is  a  specific  for  all  classes  and  kinds  of 
disease. 

Bathing,  also,  is  one  of  the  luxuries  of  life.  We  ought 
to  use  the  rain  for  this  purpose  with  great  freedom  and  fre- 
quency. So  great  are  the  curative  properties  of  water  now 
known  to  be,  that  schools  of  medicine  are  founded  upon  its 
use,  which  propose  to  treat  all  diseases  by  its  application  in 
various  forms.  This  branch  of  the  healing  art  was  in  use 
in  Bible  times,  when  Naaman,  the  Syrian,  was  ordered  to 
dip  in  the  Jordan.  Elisha  was  a  hydropathist.  More  and 
more  is  water  becoming  a  medicinal  remedy,  both  by  inter- 
nal and  external  application.  Warm  baths  have  been  by  far 
the  most  used,  but  the  tendency  now  is  to  the  cold.  Warm 
or  cold,  internally  or  externally  used,  the  rain  is  one  of  God's 
great  specifics  for  the  health  of  mankind. 

In  another  way  the  rain  conduces  to  health.  It  cleanses 
and  sweetens  both  earth  and  air.  There  is  a  constant  decay 
of  vegetable  and  animal  matter  going  on  upon  the  earth. 
Without  some  means  of  carting  away  this  decayed  substance 
the  very  wings  of  the  wind  would  droop  with  malaria  and 


THE  RAIN. 


the  atmosphere  become  charged  with  poison  and  death.  Tlie 
rain  comes  riding  down  through  the  foul,  smoky  air,  and 
washes  it.  The  sky  takes  on  a  new  and  deeper  blue.  It 
dissolves,  also,  all  decaying  matter,  carrying  the  nutritive 
properties  down  to  feed  the  roots  of  vegetation,  to  bloom  in 
the  flowers,  and  ripen  in  the  fruit,  while  it  carts  away  the 
refuse  material  into  brooks  and  rivers,  to  be  dumped  at  last 
upon  the  floor  of  the  sea  and  into  the  caverns  of  old  ocean, 
which  are  vast  and  deep  enough  to  hold  the  drainage  of  a 
continent,  and  salt  enough  to  sweeten  the  corruption  of  a 
globe.  All  the  men  and  horses  and  machinery  in  existence 
could  not  do  a  millionth  part  of  the  cleansing  of  one  good 
hearty  rain-storm.  The  rain-drops  are  'God's  scavengers. 
The  clouds  are  nature's  board  of  health.  They  go  where  no 
sanitary  commission  ever  goes,  where  the  eye  of  no  police- 
man ever  looks.  They  hunt  out  and  hurry  away  all  the 
noisome  and  poisonous  sediment  of  city  and  town,  and  dump 
it  into  the  sea,  where  the  nostrils  of  man  and  beast  shall 
never  breathe  it  more.  The  contribution  of  the  rain  to  the 
health  of  man  and  the  cleanliness  of  his  earthly  home  is  one 
of  its  most  significant  uses. 

The  rain  makes  the  earth  beautiful  as  well  as  healthful. 
God  has  been  at  great  and  loving  pains  to  fit  up  and  adorn 
the  home  of  his  children.  Were  the  rain-fall  to  cease,  what 
desolation  would  creep  over  the  earth  ?  The  springs  would 
no  longer  flow,  but  become  dry  and  ghastly,  like  the  eye- 
sockets  in  a  human  skull.  The  rivers  would  become  extinct, 
and  their  channels  be  long  serpentine  gashes  on  the  face  of 
the  earth,  while  exhausted  lakes  and  seas  would  pit  and  pock 
the  land.  The  dead  earth  would  roll  through  space  a  mu- 
seum of  dried  plants  and  mummies. 

But,  with  the  rain  coming  often  and  gently  upon  it,  how 
variously  and  wondrously  beautiful  it  becomes  !  The  fields 
are  green,  the  flowers  bloom,  streams  cross  it  in  every  di- 
rection, as  threads  of  silver  woven  on  cloth  of  emerald.  The 


THE  RAIN. 


woods  fling  their  banners  to  the  breeze  and  march  over  plain 
and  hill,  and  wrap  themselves  about  the  loins  of  the  mount- 
ains. The  earth  adorns  herself  as  a  bride  for  her  husband. 

In  this  way  the  rain  becomes  an  esthetic  agent,  and  minis- 
ters to  man's  intellectual,  moral,  and  religious  nature.  There 
is  that  on  all  sides  of  us,  the  outcome  of  the  rain,  that 
awakens  ideas  of  beauty,  and  thoughts  of  gratitude  and  love. 
Ten  thousand  forms  of  grace  and  strength  address  our  senses, 
and  kindle  admiration.  How  much  all  men  owe  to  their  sur- 
roundings. The  storm  preaches.  The  brooks  and  rivers  sing. 
The  domed  and  pillared  mountains  lift  their  God-carved  and 
snow-crowned  capitals  to  fill  our  souls  with  ideals  of  grandeur 
and  figures  of  strength.  The  intellect  is  broadened,  the  im- 
agination inspired,  the  taste  elevated,  the  physique  improved, 
the  whole  man  helped,  both  for  the  life  that  now  is  and  for 
that  which  is  to  come,  by  the  contribution  of  the  rain.  The 
rain-drops  are  the  world's  artisans.  They  clothe  and  drape 
the  forest;  they  dome  and  decorate  the  heavens;  they  skirt 
the  horizon  with  gorgeous  sunset  clouds;  they  fresco  the 
heavens  and  carpet  the  earth,  the  ceiling  and  floor  of  our 
home  below.  We  cannot  overestimate  our  indebtedness  to 
the  rain  for  the  manifold  charms  of  our  existence  here. 

Nor  is  this  beauty  on  the  surface  all.  The  crystals  that 
stud  the  rocks  and  flame  in  their  caverns,  the  gold  and  sil- 
ver, the  coal  and  iron,  are  the  filterings  of  the  water.  Water 
is  a  universal  solvent.  It  dissolves  first,  and  then  selects  out 
of  the  solution  the  most  precious  elements  and  combines  and 
builds  them  into  richer  and  rarer  forms — the  diamond  and 
amethyst,  the  topaz  and  jasper,  the  carbuncle  and  sapphire. 
It  filters  the  precious  metals  into  the  seams  and  fissures  of 
the  rocks.  The  rain  carries  to  the  pearl  oyster  the  material 
out  of  which  he  makes  his  creamy  jewel,  and  to  the  coral  in- 
sect the  substance  out  of  which  he  rears  his  red-roofed  island 
home.  Beneath  us,  then,  and  above  us,  and  all  about,  are 
the  wonderful  works  of  the  rain. 


THE  RAIN. 


Again,  the  rain  is  the  great  equalizer  of  the  temperature 
of  the  globe.  The  oceans  under  the  tropics  are  a  vast  steam 
boiler.  The  sun  is  the  central  fire.  Great  masses  of  vapor 
are  created  which  spring  into  the  upper  regions,  where  they 
are  met  by  aerial  currents,  which  bear  it,  on  the  one  hand,  to 
the  south,  and  on  the  other  toward  the  north,  conveying  the 
heat  of  the  tropics  toward  either  pole.  As  these  vapors,  all 
packed  with  caloric,  come  into  our  cooler  zones  and  sweep 
against  the  mountain  ranges,  they  are  condensed  and  give  out 
their  latent  heat.  A  south  wind  always  raises  the  tempera- 
ture. 

This  equalizing  current  is  continually  kept  up.  The  heated 
vapor  is  ever  traveling  to  us,  while  our  cold,  crisp  air  moves 
southward,  to  refresh  and  invigorate  the  tropics.  The  process 
is  precisely  similar  to  the  method  of  heating  buildings  by 
steam.  Water  is  raised  to  vapor  by  the  fire  under  the  boiler. 
It  ascends  to  the  cold  rooms  above,  is  condensed,  gives  out 
its  latent  heat  to  warm  the  apartment,  and  then  returns  to 
the  boiler  in  the  form  of  water.  What  men  do  on  a  small 
scale  the  great  Architect  does  on  the  scale  of  the  universe. 
This  process  of  heating  is  God's  patent. 

Without  this  constant  circulation,  carried  on  by  the  agency 
of  the  rain,  but  a  small  part  of  the  globe  would  be  habit- 
able. The  heat  of  the  tropics  would  be  intolerable,  while 
large  portions  of  the  temperate  zones,  now  the  most  densely 
populated,  would  be  one  mass  of  eternal  snow  and  ice. 
This  is  among  the  most  beneficent  uses  of  the  rain.  It  is  the 
pack-mule  to  bring  the  heat  of  the  torrid  zone  to  the  tem- 
perate, and  bear  back  the  cool  breezes  of  the  north  to  allay 
the  heat  and  languor  of  the  equatorial  regions. 

POWER  CONCERNED  IN  FORMING  RAIN. 

Water  is  one  of  the  most  quiescent  of  substances,  and  re- 
veals no  trace  ot  the  immense  force  concerned  in  its  produc- 
tion. Yet  its  history  reveals  the  presence  of  a  force  before 


THE   RA1S.  9 


which  we  stand  utterly  amazed.  Water  is  composed  of  two 
gases,  hydrogen  and  oxygen.  Now  the  power  necessary  to 
cause  eight  pounds  of  oxygen  to  unite  with  one  pound  of 
hydrogen,  forming  nine  pounds  of  water,  would  lift  forty- 
seven  millions  of  pounds  one  foot.  What  a  power  is  ex- 
erted, with  perfect  silence  and  ease,  in  every  rain  storm ! 
This  is  one  of  the  most  wonderful  things  connected  with  the 
rain.  "  I  have  seen,"  says  Tyndall,  "  the  wild  stone  ava- 
lanche of  the  Alps  smoke  and  thunder  down  their  declivities 
with  a  vehemence  almost  sufficient  to  stun  the  beholder;  I 
have  seen  the  snow-flakes  descending  so  softly  as  not  to  hurt 
the  fragile  spangles  of  which  they  are  composed.  Yet  to 
produce  from  aqueous  vapor  an  amount  of  snow  a  child 
could  carry  demands  a  power  that  would  gather  up  the  scat- 
tered blocks  of  the  largest  stone  avalanche,  and  pitch  them 
to  twice  the  height  from  whence  they  fell."  "  It  is  usual," 
says  Professor  Cooke,  "  to  suppose  that  the  grand  in  nature 
is  to  be  seen  in  great  waterfalls  and  lofty  mountains;  but  to 
the  intellectual  eye  there  is  more  evidence  of  omnipotence 
in  a  single  rain  drop,  than  in  the  roar  of  Niagara,  or  the 
magnitude  of  Mont  Blanc.  Of  all  the  materials  of  our 
globe,  water  bears  most  conspicuously  the  stamp  of  the  great 
Designer  and  teaches  the  most  impressive  lessons  of  his  wis- 
dom and  power." 

SYMBOLISM  OF  RAIX. 

You  meet  with  it  as  a  symbol  in  all  languages,  ancient  and 
modern,  in  poetry  and  science,  in  argument  and  philosophy. 
It  is  woven  into  all  languages  and  thought.  This  is  con- 
spicuously seen  in  the  Bible  and  as  a  religious  symbol. 

If  one  searches  the  sacred  oracles  to  learn  the  state  of 
man  in  sin,  he  is  a  desert,  a  dry  and  thirsty  land,  where  is 
no  water.  The  selfish  heart  is  all  chapped  by  drought.  It 
is  a  cistern  that  holds  no  water.  By  no  other  symbol  can  the 
waste  and  moral  ruin  of  evil  courses  be  so  vividly  set  forth 
as  by  the  absence  of  rain.  Men  and  nations  wilt  and  wither 


10  THE 


under  them,  as  a  land  without  moisture.  All  that  men  most 
fear  and  dread  comes  in  the  track  of  the  drought.  So  all  the 
wretchedness  of  which  human  society  and  the  heart  are 
capable  is  strongly  typed  by  the  failure  of  the  rain. 

If  one  seeks  for  the  most  expressive  symbol  of  moral 
cleansing  and  regeneration  he  will  find  it  in  water.  "  Wash 
me,  and  I  shall  be  clean;"  as  though  David  would  have  the 
Almighty  wash  his  spirit,  as  soiled  clothing  is  cleansed  in 
pure  water.  "The  washing  of  regeneration."  The  grace 
and  cleansing  power  of  great  and  good  thoughts  come  down 
upon  men,  young  men  especially,  as  rain  upon  the  fields  that 
have  been  mown.  They  sink  down  to  the  fine  roots  of 
character  and  conduct,  and  start  a  new  and  nobler  life.  They 
wash  the  penitent  nature  of  all  the  dregs  and  sediment  of 
evil,  and  bury  them  so  deep  in  the  great  ocean  of  infinite 
love,  they  will  never  offend  it  more. 

The  breadth  and  generosity  of  the  provision  made  to 
cleanse  and  restore  human  nature  is  illustrated  by  the  abun- 
dance of  water,  "Come  ye  to  the  waters."  "Whosoever 
will,  let  him  drink  freely."  You  seem  to  hear  the  water  as 
it  ripples  and  sings  along  many  biblical  metaphors,  and  see 
the  dew  sparkling  on  many  pages  of  the  Bible,  as  on  the 
fields  about  the  base  of  old  Hermon.  The  rain  and  the  dew 
are  among  the  most  expressive  as  well  as  frequent  illustra- 
tions of  the  benevolence  and  goodness  of  God  in  all  lan- 
guages, both  pagan  and  Christian.  The  Saviour  of  mankind, 
who  used  language  with  such  expressive  beauty  and  force, 
finds  his  most  available  and  fitting  illustration  in  water. 
The  gentle  plash  and  murmur  of  running  brooks  and  spark- 
ling springs  are  heard  in  his  most  gracious  and  winsome 
words,  "  The  water  that  I  shall  give  him  shall  be  in  him  a 
veil  of  water  springing  up  into  everlasting  life."  "If 
any  man  thirst,  let  him  come  unto  me  and  drink."  Christ 
pours  out  his  great  compassionate  love  as  the  tropical  rain. 
It  never  returns  to  him  void,  but  accomplishes  the  cleansing 


RAIN.  11 


and  beautifying  of^tuman  souls  and  characters,  as  the  rain 
that  comes  oft  and  gently  upon  the  earth  cleanses  it  and 
clothes  it  with  verdure  and  grace.  The  new  life  which  he 
brings  to  men  is  a  river  proceeding  out  of  the  throne  of  God. 
Close  by  that  throne  is  a  vast  sea  of  pleasure,  whose  gentle 
waves  ripple  and  break  along  sands  of  gold. 

The  use  of  water  is  universal  in  all  languages,  to  express 
freedom,  generosity,  benevolence,  and  broad  expansive 
thoughts  and  beneficence,  as  in  nature.  You  can  scarce  open 
a  book  or  read  a  page,  that  water  is  not  used  to  illustrate 
some  thought  or  principle.  The  Bible  is  full  of  seas  and 
lakes  and  rivers  and  springs.  To  the  Oriental  imagination 
no  one  thing  was  so  expressive  as  water.  His  thoughts  were 
full  of  it. 

When,  moreover  the  sacred  writers  attempt  to  convey  to 
us  some  conception  of  the  future  world  and  the  condition  of 
souls  after  death,  they  turn  to  the  metaphor  of  water.  The 
land  of  lost  spirits  is  a  land  without  water.  Its  absence  is 
the  utmost  symbol  of  distress.  "  Send  Lazarus  that  he  may 
dip  the  tip  of  his  finger  in  water  to  cool  my  parched  tongue." 
A  place  without  water.  Thirst  with  nothing  to  quench  it. 
What  vivid,  graphic  imagery  !  "What  bold  painting  ! 

Heaven,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  city  full  of  water.  It 
would  be  as  impossible  for  an  Eastern  writer,  who  had  been 
in  the  desert  and  suffered  from  the  simoon,  to  paint  heaven 
without  a  plenty  of  water,  as  to  paint  a  landscape  without 
trees.  Every-where  in  the  land  of  the  blessed  dead  there 
are  fountains  and  springs  of  water.  A  great  river,  clear  as 
crystal,  flows  along  tree-fringed  banks,  through  every  part  of 
the  celestial  city.  The  skies  are  full  of  moisture.  Clouds 
fretted  and  fringed  with  gold  float  in  the  crystalline  air. 
Xo  figure  could  fasten  upon  the  minds  of  those  among  whom 
the  Scriptures  were  written,  so  vividly,  the  contrast  between 
Hades  and  Heaven,  as  the  absence  and  presence  of  water. 

Ah  !  how  full  of  instruction  and  life  and  beauty,  of  joy  and 


UUOD     LlDKttKT. 

12  THE  RAIN.  m 

health,  of  riches  and  treasures,  how  eloquent  of  power  and 
majesty,  of  grace  and  grandeur,  strength  and  beauty,  is  the 
rain  !  How  full  of  wisdom  and  knowledge  is  every  little 
drop  as  it  comes  riding  down  through  the  air,  to  commence 
its  journey  through  rivulet  and  river,  back  to  the  great  ocean 
whence  it  came  !  Surely  the  rain  hath  a  Father,  and  through 
it  he  speaks  and  works,  in  ten  thousand  ways,  to  help  and 
instruct,  to  bless  and  enrich  his  children. 


TIHIIE 
[THOUGHT-OUTLINE  TO  HELP  THE  MEMORY.] 

1.  How  caused  ?     Amount  of  water  on  the  earth  ?      Air  saturated  ?    Annual 

rainfall  ?    Water  in  our  bodies,  in  plants,  etc.  ? 

2.  Distribution  of  rain  ?    Uses  of  rain  ?    Steam ....  Life Healing Luxury 

Purifies  the  air Beauty.   .  .Equalizer  of  temperature. 

3.  Power  of  rain?    Symbolism? 


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Blacksmith."  By  Charles  Northend.  10 
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By  J.  H.  Vincent,  D.D 10 

No.  36.  Assembly  Bible  Outlines.  By 

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J.  H.  Vincent,  D.D 10 

No.  38.  The  Life  of  Christ.  By  Rev. 

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65.  Rufus  Choate.     By  Dr.  ('.  Adams. 

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Liquor  System.  By  lie v.  D.  C  .  Baheoek. 

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in:;.  D.I). 

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78.  Art  in  Greece.     Part  II.     I'.v  Kduard  A. 

Hand. 

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Hand. 

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F.dward  A.  1,'and. 

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lulward  A.  Band. 

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K.Uvard  A.   Hand. 

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84.  Our  Earth.     B\   Mrs.  V.  C.  Phcebiifl. 

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Halstad. 

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Blngham. 

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